Sweatband



Sept. 16, 1969 J. v. MILITELLO SWEATBAND med June 2z, 1967 w V 5 E w JM f .M i ILM Illl. lill A TTORNE YS United States Patent O 3,466,664 SWEATBAND James V. Militello, Buffalo, N.Y., assignor t American Allsafe Company, Inc., Buffalo, N.Y. Filed `Iune 22, 1967, Ser. No. 648,021 Int. Cl. A42b 3/00 U.S. Cl. 2-171 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A sweatband having a strip of metal foil and a layer of sponge material in face to face contact with the sponge layer of greater width to provide substantial marginally extending sponge portions extending longitudinally at op- -posite edges of the strip of metal foil. The metal foil strip and the sponge layer are approximately coextensive lengthwise and a gauze layer is disposed at the exposed face of the metal foil and stitched to the sponge along the marginally extending portions thereof to retain and protect the metal foil, there being means for holding the sweatband against a wearers forehead with the sponge layer outward.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to sweatbands such as are worn about the forehead of workers and athletes with a sponge which is water soaked to produce evaporation and a metal foil strip to conduct heat from the forehead to the sponge member as the latter is cooled by evaporation of moisture therefrom.

Description of the prior art Prior art sweatbands have been proposed which include the combination of .a water absorbing evaporative member and a heat conducting metal foil strip between the evaporative member and a wearers forehead. Such sweatbands in the prior art have been such as to permit perspiration to ow down a wearers forehead substantially directly to the foil strip. Also, the proposed construction of the prior art have been rather cumbersome and expensive in construction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the sweatband of the present invention an elong-ated metal foil strip has a layer of sponge material disposed against its outer face with the sponge layer projecting marginally beyond the foil strip at its opposite longitudinal edges whereby these projecting marginal portions of sponge lie directly against the forehead of the wearer. Thus, these projecting marginal sponge layer portions provide a barrier 'against perspiration flowing along a wearers forehead, preventing such perspiration from reaching the foil layer. lPerspiration reaching these marginal sponge portions is absorbed by the sponge and evaporates therefrom to augment the evaporative cooling effect which results primarily from the fact that the `sponge is maintained in a wet condition to obtain the desired evaporative cooling effect which is conducted to the forehead of the wearer by the metal foil. Furthermore, in the present sweatband a gauze strip is disposed over the exposed face of the metal foil to retain the same and is stitched to the sponge' layer -along the projecting marginal portions thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a general perspective view of one form of the sweatband of the present invention in position on a wearers forehead;

3,466,664 Patented Sept. 16, 1969 Fice DESCRIPTION THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Like characters of reference denote like parts in the several gures of the drawing and the numeral 10 designates a strip of cellulose sponge or other synthetic or natural sponge material, or any Imaterial having a high absorptive capacity. The numeral 11 designates a strip of metallic foil which is disposed directly against the sponge strip 10 4but is of substantially less width so that substantially longitudinal marginal portions of the sponge strip project beyond the metal foil strip 11.

The metal strip is retained in position and protected to some extent by a layer of loosely woven gauze or similar fabric which is indicated at 12, particularly in FIG. 3. Gauze strip 12 extends laterally :beyond the foil strip 11 and is stitched to the sponge strip 10, as indicated at 13=.

The gauze strip 12, because of its relatively open weave, does not materially affect direct contact 4between the metal foil strip 11 and the forehead of a wearer of the sweatband, so that the foil stripy may be considered to be in direct heat conducting relation to the skin of the forehead of the wearer. The sponge strip 10 is preferably soaked with water before applying the sweatband to the wearers forehead and the heat of evaporation of the liquid from the sponge into the atmosphere is to a large extent supplied by conduction from the wearers forehead through the metal foil strip 11 to sponge 10.

It will particularly be noted that longitudinal marginal portions of the sponge which extend beyond the foil strip 11 bear directly against the wearers forehead, thus absorbing perspiration along such marginal strips and also perspiration which may iiow to such marginal strips. This additional moisture, which is absorbed by the sponge strip, evaporates to produce an augmented cooling effect, in addition to the cooling caused -by evaporation of the water which is preliminarily applied to the sponge strip 10.

In the illustrated instance, the ends of the strip assem-y bly are reinforced by binding tape 15 which is folded over the ends of the device and sewed thereto as indicated at 16 in FIG. 2. An elastic band 17 extends through openings in the ends of the sweatband for readily attaching the device to a wearers head, as clearly shown in FIG. l.

In the embodiment shown herein perforations through the sponge strip 10` and metal foil strip 11 are provided, as indicated at 18 in FIGS. 2 and 3, to provide a certain amount of air circulation through the sponge material and the foil strip 11.

I claim:

1. In a sweatband, an inner strip of relatively thin heat conducting sheet material, an outer of sponge material lying directly against said heat conducting strip and being of substantially greater Width to provide longitudinally extending marginal portions extending beyond said strip at opposite longitudinal edges thereof, means securing said strip and said sponge layer against each other, and band means for securing said sweatband about the head of a wearer, said heat conducting strip adapted to be directed toward the wearers forehead to conduct heat therefrom to said sponge layer, said marginally extending sponge layer portions providing a moisture absorbing barrier along opposite side edges of said heat conducting strip.

2. A sweatband according to claim 1 wherein said heat conducting strip comprises metal foil.

3. A sweatband according to claim 1 having a strip of open mesh gauze material against the forehead facing surface of said heat conducting strip, said gauze `being secured to the marginally extending sponge layer portion to retain said strip against said layer.

4. A sweatband according to claim 3 wherein said heat conducting strip comprises metal foil.

4 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 703,531 7/1902 Brown 2-171 2,875,447 3/1959 Goldmerstein 2 171.2 5 3,029,438 4/196 2 Henschel 2 181XR 3,089,146 5/1963 sterne 2-181 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner 10 GEORGE H. KRIZMANICH, Assistant Examiner 

